Dance on TV is becoming increasingly difficult to bring to fruition and a new station, BBC4 may become a ghetto for 'specialist' areas like the arts. Melvyn Bragg berates the BBC for their approach to the Arts. For our overseas readers, Bragg is a succesful novelist who has carved out a career as a TV presenter of Arts programmes and excellent discussion programmes on a wide range of themes on the radio.

Lord Bragg attacks BBC1 for lack of arts

by Susan Mansfield in The Scotsman

Quote:

THE veteran arts broadcaster, Melvyn Bragg, yesterday launched a stinging attack on the BBC for dropping arts programming from its flagship channel.

Lord Bragg accused the BBC of "a total dereliction of its public duty", saying that BBC1 had shown only one arts documentary since January, which did not even add up to a "fig leaf".

Launching the 25th season of ITV’s The South Bank Show, Lord Bragg, the presenter since it began, said it was a "disgrace" that it had been left to commercial television to provide the core of arts broadcasting in the UK.

Lorraine Hegessey, the Controller of BBC1, responds to Melvyn Bragg's criticisms. Seconds out - Round 2<P><B>'Arts on BBC 1 moves with the times - dumbing down it is not'</B> <P>Lorraine Heggessey writes in The Observer <P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>So BBC1 has been pilloried by a senior ITV figure for 'dereliction of duty' in its public service commitments. Do I detect the faintest whiff of a smoke screen? Are these heartfelt cries from concerned executives or a cynical attempt to deflect attention from a commercial channel in trouble? <BR>Melvyn Bragg grabbed headlines asserting that the only contribution BBC1 has made to arts this year is one documentary. That's simply not true. Melvyn, you've conveniently managed to wipe off the televisual map some of the major arts projects we've showcased on the channel. There's the Proms; Music Live, a nationwide live musical celebration; and the new Blue Peter Book Awards - fiction and non-fiction prizes judged by children alongside an expert panel. These events would not exist if it weren't for the BBC which funds them - and they're all on BBC1.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><A HREF="http://www.observer.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,552421,00.html" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><BR>

<B>Where's John Berger when you need him?</B><P>The fall of arts TV, by Jacques Peretti in The Guardian <P><BR>In the exchange between Bragg and Heggessey, there has been no discussion of what constitutes an arts programme. Bragg defines the arts as 'novels, opera, ballet, popular music, classical music, dance'. But who under 40 would define arts in this way? In fact, who would use the word 'arts' at all? It's a word you associate with people wafting round the Arts Council, trying to get Talvin Singh's phone number for a sound installation at the ICA. <P>Straight arts documentaries start from the Reithian [Reith was a previous Director General of the BBC] premise that 'here is a thing that needs to be shown to an audience'. This thing then has to be explained and contextualised. Yet we don't consume art like this any more (at least, I hope not, since this belief underlies the arts series I am now making for Channel 4). <P><A HREF="http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010922000513&query=ballet" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><BR>

The BBC is not producing enough arts and music programming, veteran broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has said. Sir David, 76, one of the best-known faces on British TV and a former controller of BBC Two, told The Times the corporation was neglecting "serious broadcasting". The naturalist, whose The Blue Planet was an international hit, has a new series, Life of Mammals, schedule for broadcast on BBC One over the coming months. But in an interview on Tuesday he criticised the BBC for having moved away from its commitment to the arts.

Leading broadcaster Melvyn Bragg has criticised the BBC for ignoring young British artists. Lord Bragg said the corporation's aversion to taking risks and concentrating on the past was exemplified by a three-part series on Leonardo da Vinci.

The show, presented by Alan Yentob, is a highlight of the BBC's autumn arts coverage.

But Lord Bragg likened the BBC's veneration of "The Great Dead" to "warm bath television with no risks".

"Leonardo is terrific. But what about travelling to the East End of London where there are so many artists working? Why not pick six of them? There are artists all over the place," he said.

The BBC's flagship arts programme, Omnibus, is to be re-named and given a new presenter in a radical revamp. The BBC says Omnibus is being re-launched - not scrapped - and has hit back at criticism that the move is a sign of dumbing down.

The show, to be called Imagine, will be overhauled at the start of 2003 and will be presented by former BBC One controller Alan Yentob.

The BBC has come under fire from critics who say its arts coverage is being relegated in favour of rating-winning programmes.

In his soon-to-be-published auto-biography, The Fun Factory, A Life at the BBC, Will Wyatt, the organisation’s former number two, recalls how Martin Lambie-Nairn, the celebrated designer, rang to complain. Lambie-Nairn had been hired to rebrand BBC2, but the channel’s then controller, Alan Yentob, would not get out of his hair.

“Will – help! Can you stop Alan trying to design the logo himself?” pleaded Lambie-Nairn. The story is classic Yentob. At the BBC, his hands-on approach to just about everything that came his way helped redefine the phrase “creative tension”.

Now 56, Yentob, after 35 years as a programme maker, department head and channel controller, is being wheeled out from behind his executive desk – as the BBC’s director of drama, entertainment and children’s TV he oversees a budget of £750m – to front the BBC’s attempt to convince the world that it remains committed to covering the arts in primetime on its flagship channel, BBC1.

No subject has monopolised the national debate about the BBC's role so much as arts on television. The genre, it is generally agreed, has been neglected and abandoned by mainstream broadcasters and the BBC's performance has been the worst. But has the situation changed over the past five years? Is the BBC lagging behind, or are our expectations of its responsibilities simply higher? As the corporation experiences a Pauline conversion and discovers some prime-time arts programmes on the road to renewing its charter, Media Guardian commissioned the UK's expert research company in this field to analyse television's arts output and track what has really happened. We wanted the big picture, not parti pris sniping - to put some facts into the debate and to take a considered approach.

Art Of The Bright Idea The man who gave us Arena and Omnibus is back to kickstart a cultural revolution at the BBC. Alan Yentob speaks to James Cusick for The Sunday Herald.

SMALL white cards cover the walls of the digital editing suite in London's Soho. Written in bright red ink are graphic reminders of pearls of wisdom that need to be included in the programme being made. If the cards are anything to go by, the subject -- barrister turned author and playwright, John Mortimer -- has clearly been on top form: 'Believe in something -- but not God; Mistrust predictable people'; 'Enjoy outdoor sex'; 'Befriend women'; 'Drink champagne'; 'Never be boring'.

Amid piles of music CDs and archive tapes of Mortimer's life adventures -- the Oz trial, the Lady Chatterley trial -- sits a small bearded and balding man dressed in baggy dark trousers and a dark T-shirt. Alan Yentob is in the middle of doing what he loves best -- making a television programme.

Jana Bennett, director of television, recognised a weakness in arts coverage The BBC has unveiled an £8m drive to improve arts in primetime, resulting in an extra 50 hours over 18 months. It should mean a move towards producing more contemporary arts and culture shows on BBC Two and Four.

BBC Two is to introduce a strand provisionally titled The Culture Show, which could cover everything from Hollywood to the Elgin Marbles.

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